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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 3d

Some thoughts on Zhongyuan Mandarin - from someone growing up internalizing the stigma associated with our native dialect chenchenzhang.net/2025/10/05/s...

Some thoughts on Zhongyuan Mandarin

On why re-examining our “dialects” is about resisting hierarchies, opposing discrimination, and pursuing linguistic justice, rather than cultural “orthodoxy”.

chenchenzhang.net

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 8d

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by deporting noncitizen student activists. nyti.ms/4mG1pck

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 15d

i am seriously begging democrats to bring the same smoke to this story that they brought to jimmy kimmel being indefinitely suspended

Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 15d

More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site

As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.

www.miamiherald.com

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Texas Conference of the AAUP @texasaaup.bsky.social · 12d

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.” The professor spoke by phone from the inside of a car to avoid being overheard by colleagues.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

www.nytimes.com

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Autopia Furiosa @pierrette1789.bsky.social · 13d

All my best to this FEMA employee, and may they succeed in their mission:

"I'M THE TYPE of person where, like, if you push me I'll push back. I don't like to live in a mindset of despair and negativity. When these people do this shit, it just lights my fire. It makes me more fucking mad. This used to be the best job I've ever had, the best environment I've ever had, the best culture I've ever had-and they fucking ruined it. I will never ever forget how much they ruined it. I'm like, fuck these people. They can't get me scared. I will not give them what they want. I will not just leave. I'm going to make it as difficult as possible for these fuckheads." -FEMA employee

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 15d

"Faculty are afraid to carry out their jobs faithfully in what they view to be your interest, and there is little evidence that the administration will shield them from outside pressures. Missing in this equation is you. What kind of education do you want?"
thebatt.com/news/anonymo...

Anonymous Texas A&M professor calls on students to be ‘agent of change’

Editor's note: The following is an open letter to the Texas A&M student body written by a tenured professor at A&M and provided to The Battalion. The pr

thebatt.com

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John Delury @johndelury.bsky.social · 15d

A mensch. I learned so much from him, and I feel honored too the three of us were able to have that conversation, and Jerry lives on in this as in countless projects, writings, students, cases.

Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 15d

RIP to Jerome Cohen, a truly inspiration and fascinating longtime China scholar. I'm genuinely honored I got the opportunity to chat with him once alongside @johndelury.bsky.social about American Sinology in the Cold War.
www.ncuscr.org/event/agents...

Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China

John Delury and Jerome Cohen discuss with Gina Tam John T. Downey and the CIA in China during the early years of the PRC.

www.ncuscr.org

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eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 15d

En route from Beijing, and I see the news that Professor Cohen has passed away. Still teach his enduring study History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, Myth -and thinking back on how much I learned from Paul over many informal chats and gatherings in Cambridge.
Safe travels, laoshi.

Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 15d

My tribute to Paul Cohen as historian & mentor to many www.asianstudies.org/in-memoriam-... cc @lmansley.bsky.social

In Memoriam: Paul A. Cohen (1934-2025) - Association for Asian Studies

Paul A. Cohen, who died on September 15, 2025 at the age of 91, made significant contributions to both the interdisciplinary field of Chinese studies and the discipline of history. The most obvious wa...

www.asianstudies.org

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 15d

RIP to Jerome Cohen, a truly inspiration and fascinating longtime China scholar. I'm genuinely honored I got the opportunity to chat with him once alongside @johndelury.bsky.social about American Sinology in the Cold War.
www.ncuscr.org/event/agents...

Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China

John Delury and Jerome Cohen discuss with Gina Tam John T. Downey and the CIA in China during the early years of the PRC.

www.ncuscr.org

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 15d

Oh he was such a lovely person.

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 18d

Yes, at the very least it helps our colleagues who are here now; less so future colleagues or current Ph.D. students hoping to stay here.

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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 18d

"the most important anticolonial intellectuals may not use the language of decolonization and may not be in unis, but on the streets, with social movements, and in prison" Alpa Shah. not the state-affiliated think tanks talking deco, not the deco big names talking multipolar civilizational order

Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 18d

22yo student Zhang Yadi, an activist with 华语青年挺藏会 ChineseYouthStand4Tibet who's supposed to begin her MA study at SOAS, has been detained while visiting family in China & charged with "inciting separation" www.instagram.com/p/DOy4rwViEk...

ENG: Tara Zhang Yadi is a 22 year old student from China, who had lived in France for the past few years. She was taken from her family home by the Chinese Government on July 30th 2025 during her summer holidays, ahead of moving to London to start her masters degree at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) in London, with a scholarship.
FR: Tara Zhang Yadi, étudiante chinoise de 22 ans ayant vécu ces dernières années en France, a été arrêtée par les autorités chinoises le 30 juillet 2025, alors qu'elle se trouvait dans la maison familiale pour les vacances d'été. Elle devait prochainement s'installer à Londres pour commencer un master à la SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) grâce à une bourse.

ENG: Today, it has been announced that she is being held at Changsha National Detention Centre for “inciting separation” because of her human rights work, including editing for ChineseYouthStand4Tibet.
FR: Il a été annoncé aujourd'hui qu'elle est détenue au centre de détention national de Changsha pour “incitation à la séparation”, en raison de son engagement en faveur des droits humains, et notamment pour son rôle d’éditrice à ChineseYouthStand4Tibet.

ENG: Her family and family-appointed lawyer is unable to contact or meet her, with the National Security Bureau citing “state secrets.”
She is now facing over 5 years in prison
FR: Ni sa famille ni l'avocat choisi par ses proches n'ont pu la voir et la sécurité nationale bloque tout contact sous prétexte de "secrets d'Etat."
Elle fait face maintenant à plus de 5 ans de prison

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 18d

I’d add to this Susan Mann, whose Talented Women of the Zhang Family is a masterclass in both narrative and analytical writing

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Laura Sell @laurasell.bsky.social · 19d

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream

The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

www.insidehighered.com

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 18d

My head is actually spinning at how many current and future colleagues, both in the China field and beyond it, we are about to lose because of this

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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 19d

Among the many evil things about this, is doing it on a Friday night when it will be almost impossible to contact many relevant people in your institution before it is too late

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 19d

Now is the time to contact your employers and rally to protect vulnerable colleagues. The administration is demanding that any valid H1-B visa holders outside the U.S. (or their employers) pay $100,000 for them to reenter the country, as of Sunday. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

a screencap of the White House Proclamation: RESTRICTION ON ENTRY OF CERTAIN NONIMMIGRANT WORKERS
Proclamations
September 19, 2025
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor. The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security.

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 20d

I often talk about DC being an oral rather than a literate culture and this also applies to punditry in general: they base their opinions largely on what they've *heard* and on the vibes among their peers, not on what they've read or thought about

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Ryan Ho Kilpatrick 何松濤 @ryanhk.blue · 20d

For Americans who want a play-by-play of what an authoritarian transition looks like in the 2020s, I strongly recommend catching up on what’s been happening in national security-era Hong Kong.

One of the first shots fired in the ongoing crackdown was cancelling a comedy show for “insulting police.”

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 21d

I think, every so often, about how the student protesters in South Korea figured out there was a finite supply of tear gas, and then staged retreating marches that caused police to burn off most of it, before the big "bring your auntie and kids" marches that ultimately toppled the dictatorship.

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Erik Hane @erikhane.bsky.social · 21d

a key reason they see an opening for such a blatant speech crackdown is that they already did one to Palestinian and anti-genocide activists and it got enthusiastic bipartisan approval

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Niao Collective @niaocollective.bsky.social · 23d

The dumbness is part of the authoritarianism. They can pursue banana pants policies because they know they don’t have to be accountable. And the whimsical nature of law enforcement means no one knows where the red line is. If boobs can be weapons, anything you do can be construed as nefarious

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John Carpenter's dEFR🎃G @defrog.bsky.social · 23d

I can tell you this is how it is in Hong Kong now. At least 2 million ppl supported the 2019 protests and the pro-democracy movement in general. The govt knows it can't possibly jail all of them so they make high profile examples of some while "patriots" make threatening phone calls to others.

The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 23d

Look, they do not have the capacity or competence to do this at the scale they want you to fear they do, and your fear is precisely their greatest force multiplier. Everybody who is cowed into silence by their threats allows them a smaller pool to focus on.

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 23d

Stephen Miler is open about what's coming: a federal law enforcement crackdown on its political opponents

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 23d

Not a headline that can appear in an actual democracy.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

Trump Administration Live Updates: White House Officials Vow Vast Crackdown on Liberal Groups

www.nytimes.com

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 23d

at the center of the efforts to destroy civil society in russia, hungary, georgia and elsewhere is the stigmatization, harassment, & criminalization of NGOs. that's what this is about, a full-on assault on democratic debate & freedoms.

this is not hyperbole. it's right here.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 23d

Vance: "There's no unity with people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers...Soros' OSF and the Ford Foundation...benefit from generous tax treatment...How do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family."

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